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Gimli IV Stormpike
Gimli Stormpike, fourth of his name, is a dwarf born in Ironforge in the year -2 before the opening of the Dark Portal (590 by Stormwind's "King's Calendar"), to Globin VI and Saoirse Stormpike. He mostly has Bronzebeard ancestry, with some Wildhammer. Gimli was born to a cadet branch of the Stormpike ruling line- as a grand-nephew of Vanndar Stormpike, he is about the 20th in order of succession. However, he was given a potential regnal number should he reach the position of Thane one day. His vows of priesthood did not strip him of it, therefore he will keep it unless a Stormpike with a stronger claim and the same name is born while he lives. Before birth In the year -9, Gimli's father, Globin VI was among the first Stormpikes of Ironforge who became interested in the hints of activity from his Clan's forefathers in Lordaeron. Evidence pointing to a settlement in the Alterac mountains drove him to ride his ram North of Khaz Modan to seek the help of the Wildhammer gryphonriders of Aerie Peak in the Hinterlands, in order to scour the region from the sky for the concealed valley. However, reconciliation between the mountain and hill dwarves hadn't been fully achieved yet. The episode of the War of the Three Hammers, and then Grim Batol, had left the Wildhammers in deep distrust of southern dwarves, even though they held the Stormpikes in higher regard than other Bronzebeards. Their lack of interest for archaeology, exploration and foreign contact wouldn't work in Globin's favor either. Globin was welcomed by the Wildhammers as a guest, but borrowing gryphons was another story entirely. He was made to enlist into the Wildhammer defense forces, swear fealty to Thane Kurdran Wildhammer and train as a gryphonrider. As a soldier, he discovered that he wasn't allowed to ride his gryphon on his own, without an order to fly. So as to achieve his goal of scouting for the Alterac valley, he then patiently waited until he could work his way up to broader independence. But in the year -3, when he achieved a high enough rank to be allowed to leave Aerie Peak on his own and take other riders along with him, his first thought went to his family and his youth sweetheart, Saoirse Stormpike (a distant cousin). Riding south to Ironforge along with two fellow riders who were more curious than the rest of their brethren, Globin made a triumphant appearance at the dwarven capital city, harboring a promise of more understanding and archaeological cooperation with the Wildhammer dwarves in the future. Making quick work of his courtship and marriage to Saoirse, he sired his son, and promised to return soon. Before making his way back to the Hinterlands with his companions, who were starting to get interested in the mountain dwarves' ways and taste for archaeology (as well as their women), Globin was named an official liaison between the realms of Ironforge and Aerie Peak. When Saoirse knew she was pregnant with her newlywed husband's son, she sent word to the Stormpikes of the whole continent, and to Globin in Lordaeron. He would not be there to receive the message, as he finally got to take a band of gryphonriders to Alterac, hoping to discover archaeological remains of his family's early settlements. As no answer to their request for an audience with the local King had come to them for three months, Globin decided to fly west anyway. The squad of five dwarves, including his two companions from the trip to Ironforge, were met with arrows and burning pitch. The Alteraci King, Aliden Perenolde, had become so paranoid from the ongoing conflict with Stromgarde that any message from the outside was immediately destroyed by flames (except for messages of magical nature sent by Dalaran), and any outsiders were considered spies or mercenaries. One of the riders was shot down, and the others decided to surrender, because they wished to bring their dead comrade's body back to his family instead of risking more death among their band. They would remain unjudged prisoners until General Hath interceded in their favor in -1. Begrudgingly leaving Alterac without having been auhorized to unearth his companion's remains or any artifacts, Globin led his band back to Aerie Peak on foot and swearing revenge upon the human, as the gryphons were kept as trophies by Perenolde. His flying steed, Tar'an, had shed a few feathers when he was bound by the Alteraci guards, and Globin had picked them up and kept them hidden for the entire duration of his capture. Upon reaching the Aerie Peak, Globin learned he had a son, and wished to rally Ironforge right away. However, the Wildhammers would not lend him another gryphon, as his expedition was considered reckless and contrary to the values of the reclusive hill dwarves. The loss of a Wildhammer and five gryphons also got him demoted and forbidden from leaving the Hinterlands until he would retrieve his companion or befriend a wild one. Thinking himself beset by asinine and cruel leaders, he found solace in the letters he received from his beloved describing his son to him, and in the unconditional affection he found with the animals he tamed and befriended. He soon came to the decision that his son would be named after his comrade fallen in Alterac, and he sent a letter to his wife with three ornate gryphon quills, engraved with the names Globin, Saoirse and Gimli, urging her to wait for his return to freedom. Early life Taming another gryphon wasn't an easy task, especially since the Wildhammers were instructed not to facilitate his research. Globin spent endless months waiting, killing time honing his archery and wildlife knowledge skills. By the time of the end of the First War (year 3), Globin had resolved to find a way out of the Hinterlands, and he volunteered to be among the patrols keeping the Amani trolls in check on foot, hoping to eventually be sent to either Alterac or Dun Morogh. When the Bleeding Hollow Clan besieged Ironforge during the Second War (year 5), the mountain dwarves sealed off all ways in and out, preventing any messages to go through the doors. Globin became wary of his family's situation because his ravens would either come back with the messages undelivered, or not at all. The forest trolls had grown restless, enticed by the news of likeminded, green-skinned conquering fiends marching north. When they struck a bargain with the invading Horde, the Wildhammer forces suffered light, albeit traumatizing casualties. As the thane of Aerie Peak pledged his complete loyalty to the Alliance, Globin was deployed to chase the orcs on their way to Quel’Thalas. He despaired at the fact that the orcs were moving so swiftly and fearlessly, surely meaning that his homeland had fallen to the rabid aliens. It was there and then that he first heard a young inspiring hero, the priest-recently-turned-paladin Turalyon. Moved by the latter's mowerful words of hope, and later in Quel’thalas by Alleria Windrunner’s will in the face of a much worse fate than the one befalling Ironforge, Globin resolved to follow them to the ends of the world, should his family survive the war. Globin retrieved his gryphon when he convinced his superiors to lend him to the forces of Stromgarde to raid the traitorous Alliance kingdom of Alterac, for he had been a prisoner there and would facilitate contact with the Alliance loyalist General Hath. Released from his sanction, Globin rode Tar’an into battle against the Horde, for the freedom of Khaz Modan and the whole of Azeroth. When Ironforge was relieved from the Horde blockade (year 6), Globin was among the forces chasing the orcish troops on gryphonback. He began settling there once again, meeting his son Gimli for the first time and reuniting with his wife, on a long permission granted for his actions in favor of allying the Wildhammer and Bronzebeard clans. From there, he started gathering funds and the attention of the Explorers’ League to investigate Alterac valley, which had, unbeknownst to him, already been found by the Frostwolf orcs. His first trip, featuring explorers and soldiers from both dwarven kingdoms, was unsuccessful, mostly because of the Frostwolves’ friendship with the elements who concealed the secretive place, and would be his last. Although more detailed maps of the region could be established from it, they were incomplete at best, because of the spirits’ deception. Back in Ironforge, he pondered on whether to give up on his ambition temporarily and raise his child with Saoirse in Aerie Peak, in the hopes of mustering another expedition force soon. His ambitions were foiled when the Wildhammer clan called for his service once again. He heeded Terenas II Menethil, Kurdran Wildhammer, Danath Trollbane, Khadgar, Turalyon and Alleria Windrunner’s call and joined the expedition to Draenor (year 8) alongside Kurdran’s troops. He was one of the gryphonriders among the troops led by Turalyon and Alleria in a battle that took place in Outland three years after the closing of the Dark Portal (year 11). The Alliance forces present there would all disappear inexplicably. No one would hear from him again among the Wildhammers in Shadowmoon valley. Gimli became a good student, cherishing his quill. He later became a cleric apprentice, to give his mother and himself hope in the Light. As he toured the Eastern Kingdoms to spend time in the different cloisters and churches, he understood he had found his way: learning about the secrets of magic to feed his unconscious curiosity. Little did he know then, he wasn’t enacting his own will. Aftermath of the Third War Upon becoming an ordained priest of the Holy Light, Gimli chose to help one of the many war bands answering to the newly formed Alliance with the Night Elves, and was affected to the Brotherhood of the Triskel (Sargeras EU-FR, year 25). Their wanderings notably took them to Uldaman. Gimli managed to convince the Brotherhood to join the Stormpike Guard in Alterac valley, where he spent an easy life throughout the events of the war of the Shifting Sands, the appearance of Naxxramas above the Plaguelands, the arrival of the Draenei and the war against the Illidari in Outland (year 26), handling the finances in a secure bunker, while his comrades died one by one on the battlefield. The ominous deaths' implications (terrifying to anyone with half a brain, and who knows what a curse is supposed to look like) were lost on Gimli. What's more, the news sent by the Wildhammers in Shadowmoon valley seemed grim: no one had seen or heard from his father Globin in fifteen years. His heart sank and the false joy he had felt upon hearing that Kurdran Wildhammer was alive and had settled a fort in Outland made him lose all humanity for a while. He had himself started getting a twisted perception of things due to some bad dreams that echoed in his mind and his sight during the daytime, along with many strange occurrences of displaced or misplaced items and eerie discoveries in his quarters or on his body. They stopped at some point during the year 27, as Malygos brusquely changed the course of the ley lines, leading up to the Nexus War. Gimlivier found the reasons for his growing coldness and insanity had disappeared overnight, but he kept on dreaming of a strange being resembling a furbolg feverishly screaming in a small cabin on a beach, which didn't worry him too much. As many magic wielding mortals had before him, but never in such a way, Kirochi the Sleeper had drawn too much energy from the arcane flows of Azeroth, which contributed heavily to the Aspect of Magic's decision to hunt down and end abusive mages. When the Sleeper traveled to Northrend and helped Alliance and Kirin Tor efforts to put Malygos to rest, he finally laid his eyes on what he had been seeking for decades: the Arcanomicon, the updated map of all ley lines on the planet. He made a copy, and set back for Pandaria, where he resumed his puppeteering activities. Gimli didn't feel the pandaren's influence as it came back, for the Sleeper's techniques had become sharper, which helped him leave fewer traces of his possessions. He did, however, leave Gimli with a soothing and lingering dream about the Aspect of Life, Alexstrasza, who had positively impressed Kirochi and convinced him to have Gimli see her as the ideal leader. The visions and unsettling inconsistencies in his life came back, and much worse when the Cataclysm happened. Gimli left the Alterac valley to fight the agents of the Old Gods head on with a maverick band of adventurers (Save Cows Eat A Tauren, Defias EU-UK), but what his unconscious persona left after each memory loss was becoming increasingly repulsive and threatening. He once woke up to a pile of dismembered tauren soldiers of the Twilight's Hammer cult, with clear traces of his consumption of their flesh and organs. To his horror, his companions met the discovery with great respect and as a promising omen. Journey to Pandaria Gimli went to the continent of Pandaria as part of the maverick expeditionary corps that his team of explorers had been following since the second sundering of the world. He would first meet then the pandaren mage Kirochi the Sleeper and the jinyu of the Jade forest, then followed his comrades at the wall in the valley of the Four Winds, helping against the mantid. The losses were heavy and the expeditionary corps was disbanded soon afterwards. Aimlessly drifting and drinking, he became weak to the depressing influence of the Sha. Kirochi felt this and implanted in his mind the urge to return to the Jade Forest. He then paid another visit to the jinyu, and returned to Stormwind with a red and golden waterforged staff, fashioned by ancient jinyu to the likeness of a dragon with a complete head. Because of his dream about Alexstrasza, he decided to keep it to himself instead of turning it in to the League. He claimed to the latter that he was needed at the cathedral. His strange discoveries and memory losses had seemingly vanished since he had been given the staff. They came back after a few months at the cathedral, and when he got wind of the opportunity to visit the temple of Karabor unscathed in the world opened by the dragon Kairozdormu, he quickly jumped on the first occasion. He thus hoped to remove himself from the lands that caused him bad dreams and sleepwalking. Stay in Karabor and Nagrand At first relishing in his learnings in the ways of the Light at Karabor, the written accounts of the history of the Draenei soon wouldn't prove enough for Gimli's curiosity, and he eventually joined a band of archaeologists from the League of Explorers again in Nagrand, invited by an acquaintance who was a former member of his expeditionary corps. The proximity of Oshu'gun affected his sleep again (whereas the Dark Star had already been purified when he had reached Shadowmoon valley) and he didn't want to take any chances. He resolved to end his participation in the mission and returned to Karabor for a time, but news of his mother's death reached him. Saoirse had succumbed to a traffic accident. He made his way back to Ironforge for the funerals, where he discovered that his easy incorporation to the Nagrand mission was due to the lack of control the Senate had over the League of Explorers, with an empty chair of Artifacts. He chose to dedicate himself to the internal affairs of the League from then on. Ironforge Senate Arguing that he had already managed the finances of the Stormpikes of Alterac valley for several years, and always been an eager Explorer, Gimli rose to the position of Senator of Artifacts under a year after his return to Ironforge, under the ever-watchful eye of Chancellor Cyrik Blackforge and Senators Lightbang, Farfield, Boozeboat and Felha. His career was rough and uneasy, as he seldom saw eye-to-eye with the professional politicians he successively stood up to and witnessed as they left their positions, tired of being met with resistance by the newcomer. As a Senator, Gimli came off as a clumsy, conspiracy-prone fool and his policies were deemed chauvinistic and underwhelming to most of the non-dwarf Senators and attendants. However, his promise to center his efforts around filling the vaults and appropriating Titan artifacts from the Broken Isles to restore the prestige the League used to boast, earned him the trust and respect of the Explorers and a fair share of the people of Khaz Modan. A few months after Gilnean worgen immigrants Commander Sebastian Hutchins and his wife Lady Azapha Kaylock each landed a chair, the archaeological expeditions started multiplying, with Azapha and Gimli going increasingly eager to top each other's discoveries. Gimli eventually went missing in Darnassus after a mission on the Broken Shore, abducted by the Sleeper. Lamenting the Old God corruption that had crippled the dwarf as he and an elite team of current and former Senators and Explorers, the pandaren mage found his vessel left alone in the care of the Sisterhood of Elune. This treatment left him in awe, especially as the other teammembers either left without helping the priestesses with a context, or even openly minimized the trouble of getting rid of the Senator with their hands clean. Twice did the Kirochi the Sleeper speak in the Senate of Ironforge, warning about the necessity for the State to send for Gimli, to no avail for lack of sufficient interest. The priest was forcefully handed over to his comrade Kuba Rougshot a few months later. The ruthless mage sacrificed his former apprentice Koilo to lure Kuba through a portal leading to Pandaria. The unfortunate disciple, at the mountaineer's gunpoint, had tracked his master's ultimate residence, the darkened jinyu pagoda of the ruined settlement in the southeast of the Jade forest where the latter had offered Gimli his staff. Koilo simply knew too much and had lost his utility, so Kirochi blasted him to the bottom of the swamp without so much of a sorry or reluctant look. Before he could do a thing, Kuba saw himself bound in the air and disarmed and witnessed the unsettling pandaren move a statue over and reveal the cavity where the red Omnia staff used to be kept, where there was laying Gimli's shrouded form. Although he was recovering, the Sleeper warned Kuba not to let the former Senator without surveillance nor let him leave Ironforge. He had then simply thrown both dwarves into a portal to Ironforge in his usual contemptuous albeit saddened manner. Lapse into madness Demise Category:Characters Category:Alliance Characters Category:Alive characters Category:Dwarves Category:Priests Category:Shadow Priests Category:Ironforge